YOU know you’re getting old when something that seems fresh in the mind counts as an oldest memory for others.

Liverpool’s astonishing come-from-behind Champions League final victory over AC Milan in 2005 still feels like a recent event to those of a certain vintage; Milan’s 3-0 half-time lead, Liverpool clawing their way back into contention through talisman Steven Gerrard, Jerzy Dudek’s spaghetti legs routine at the penalty shout-out, and Serginho, Andrea Pirlo and Andrei Shevchenko all missing their kicks to hand Liverpool a remarkable victory. Close your eyes and the images come flooding back as if it were yesterday.

For Moussa Dembele, one fortunate enough to still have youth on his side, that evening in Istanbul serves as his earliest Champions League recollection. The Celtic forward was just nine when the Anfield club came back from the dead to lift their fifth European Cup, but it served as an inspiration that remains to this day. Dembele wants to play in those big games, too, to test himself against the continent’s elite, and two matches over the next 10 days will decide whether he gets that opportunity or not.

Celtic have fallen at this penultimate hurdle in each of the past two campaigns and this time, after the disappointments of losing out to Maribor and Malmo, it is Hapoel Be’er-Sheva who stand in their way. Dembele casts his mind back to that 2005 final and hopes this will be his time to also get a taste of European football’s most prestigious event.

“It would be a dream for me to play in this competition as I’ve been watching it all my life,” revealed the 20 year-old. “To be there doing it myself instead of watching would be amazing, something crazy. Hopefully we can win both games against Hapoel and make the group stage.

“I grew up watching the Champions League as it is one of the biggest competitions in European and world football. I didn’t follow one particular team, I just watched every big team and game. The one that sticks in my mind is the final between Liverpool and AC Milan. That’s the one I remember the most as there aren’t too many games like that. And for it to happen in a Champions League final was just crazy.

“It was one of the first games I remember as I was about nine at the time. Even back then I knew I wanted to become a footballer. I used to dream about playing in the Champions League and the World Cup and things like that, and started to work towards that. So when I watched that final with Liverpool I was already thinking that one day that could be me.”

Dembele came through the youth ranks at Paris-Saint Germain and then spent four years with Fulham. That gave him the chance to take in Champions League action in the flesh, including watching close friend Kingsley Coman, the Bayern Munich and France international who was a youth team-mate at Paris.

“I watched a lot of Champions League games while I was in London. My friend Kingsley was playing for Bayern Munich against Arsenal, so I went to watch him one time. He has already made the top level and I am happy for him. He deserves it and now it is up to me to do the job as well.”

Dembele has already experienced one special European memory as a Celtic player, confidently sweeping home a last-minute, pivotal penalty in the previous round against Astana. Manager Brendan Rodgers had previously decided that the young Frenchman would be the team’s dedicated spot-kick taker, even though he had never previously taken one in a competitive setting.

“The last round was a good thing for me as I got my first goal for the team and we got into the next round,” he added. “At professional level I have just taken two penalties – the last two [he also scored in midweek against Motherwell]. I didn’t take them at Fulham, Ross McCormack did. So my first one was against Astana.”

Hapoel will be no pushovers. The team from the desert in southern Israel have been transformed in recent seasons under new ownership and won their first championship for 40 years last season.

They will be without their captain and star striker Elyaniv Barda against Celtic after he picked up a groin injury, but knocking out Olympiakos in the last round, and then defeating Maccabi Haifa in the Israeli Super Cup on Thursday night, demonstrates their potency. Dembele, though, hopes Celtic’s will to win will be enough to usher them through.

“The fans are desperate for the team to get into the Champions League but as players we want it just as bad. Everyone really wants to qualify.

“Now we are just two games away, and hopefully we can make it and everyone will be happy.”